In this October 10, 2013 file photo, Mike Williams, JSO Director for Investigations and Homeland Security talks about the program behind a table displaying weapons acquired in the last buyback in June 2013.

Jacksonville residents who turn in their guns for $50 apiece as part of a Sheriff’s Office buyback program will now also be contributing to the future of some of the city’s youth, Sheriff John Rutherford said Tuesday.

Later this month, as the Sheriff’s Office begins doling out $70,000 taken from drug dealers in an effort to get guns off the streets, the city’s Police Athletic League will also be getting a boost.

Beginning with a gun buyback at North Jacksonville Baptist Church on June 28, each time a gun is turned in, the athletic league will also be given $50 from the Dolores Barr Weaver Fund at the Community Foundation for Northeast Florida.

The added contribution is new and follows a year in which 2,035 weapons were recovered for a little more than $100,000.

Weaver, who also contributed to buybacks that began last year, said the deaths of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012 made her realize the need to focus on keeping children from harm.

“They deserve to be safe,” she said. “They deserve to be protected.”

She said contributions to PAL were a way to bring a focus on children to the buyback program.

If the Sheriff’s Office fund is depleted, the Weaver Fund will step in and pay not only the PAL portion but the buyback price as well.

The goal for the buyback program in the upcoming year is 2,050 guns, Rutherford said.

Of the weapons turned in last year, 33 were reported stolen, he said. The thefts stretched back to 1969.

Those who wish to turn in a gun can do so anonymously and no questions are asked. Attempts are made to trace the owners of stolen weapons. Those that are considered collectables, such as antiques, are not destroyed, Rutherford said. He said others are cut apart and melted.

Rutherford said the June 28 buyback is the only event scheduled so far and that others would be announced later.

He said the program is a safe way for people to dispose of a weapon they may not want.

“A gun that is stashed away somewhere that you might forget about is one that potentially gets stolen and used by the wrong hands in a crime,” he said.

While gun buyback programs are sometimes criticized as ineffective, Rutherford said it was hard to quantify crimes that didn’t happen.

“We do know stolen guns are often used in violent crimes,” he said.

Dana Treen: (904) 359-4091

GUN BUYBACK

Jacksonville residents wishing to turn in unwanted guns for $50 cash can do so anonymously. The Sheriff’s Office asks that the weapons be transported unloaded and in the trunk.